Three Hamilton Brothers Together In Pacific

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 19

Three Hamilton Brothers Together In Pacific

R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service EMIRAU, April 24. THREE members of a Hamilton family, all leading-aircraftmen in the R.N.Z.A.F., are serving overseas on the same Pacific station. They are the sons of the late Mr. L. W. W. Brown and Mrs. Brown, of Hamilton, and are all well known in sport. At present they are on Emirau serving with Field Headquarters of the Air Task Force.

Leading-Aircraftman L,. W. W. Brown, better known at home and abroad as "Rubber," is a clerk in the Works Office liere. He is on his second tour of overseas service, and has been in the Air Force for three and a quarter years. In his last tour he served 14 months as pay accounts clerk at Norfolk, Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal

E. PI. (Ernie) Brown is a flightmechanic with a fighter squadron servicing unit here, and came overseas last October.

R. G. (Ray) Brown, the youngest of the family, is an aircraft hand. He came into the R.N.Z.A.F. after a period of service with the Army. Now 22, he has been with the armed forces since he was 18.

All three attended the Hamilton East School, where they were members of the first fifteen. L. W. W. Brown is a keen footballer. He captained both the first fifteen and the first eleven at the Hamilton Technical College in 1930, and later played Rugby for Northland, being selected for the Springbok trials at Whangarei in 1937. As keenly interested in

cricket (he represented Waikato when he was 17), he has good batting and bowling averages at Emirau against the Australians. He is also a competent golfer with a handicap of six.

Ernie Brown, like his brother, is a keen and capable footballer. He played for the first fifteen at school, and at Wigram, where he was stationed for a very long time, he was a member of the station team. Roller skating—though he doesn't practise it here—is among his chief outdoor interests, and in 1940 he won the 440 yards Services championship. Over here he turned his interest principally to cricket, playing for his servicing unit team. Equally versatile in sport, if not more so, is Ray. He is just as much at home on the Rugger field as his brothers, but he plays basketball, cricket and table tennis with equal success. In basketball he represented the R.N.Z.A.F. against the Americans at Espiritu Santo last year. He is a strong swimmer and good diver.

Sport is bred in the Brown family, and when you know the boys it is not hard to understand. Their father was an enthusiast in games himself An old boy of Christ's College, the late Mr. L.. W. W. Brown ran 100 yards in 10s 'way back in the last century, and distinguished himself in most games. In later years he was president of the Waikato Boxing Association and of the Waikato Amateur Athletic Association. He was best known, perhaps, as a Rugby referee.

There are three other brothers, according to "Rubber." One, ■W. G. Brown, was repatriated from the Middle East in December, 1943, as a result of sickness. The others, Lance and Charles, are in Hamilton. "Rubber," who is well known among the Works personnel and many others here, thinks Emirau the best island he has seen to date—that is, as far as living conditions and the island generally is concerned. As far as active service is concerned, Guadalcanal was the best of them all. "We saw plenty of action there, of course, and felt a bit nearer to the war," he says.